Audio Samples

Review

Director Jon Turtletaub hit it big when Sandra Bullock rose
to stardom in While You Were Sleeping.After such light fare, Turtletaub turned slightly serious and somewhat
less saccharine with Phenomenon.More box office receipts later - due mostly in part because of the red
hot John Travolta - Turtletaub immersed himself into the novel Ishmael,
later re-titled as we now know it, Instinct.

I can understand Danny Elfman's attraction to the film.Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr. teamed
up together?Show me the money! (The
film failed at the box office after all). Besides that, the premise is
interesting and offers up some new territory for Elfman - the African
element.After spending time in Africa
traveling (and surviving a bout with Malaria) Danny Elfman must have seen and
heard things that may have inspired his score for Instinct and indeed
there are many inspired moments on Varese Sarabande's album.

The album churns into action with the highly percussive,
MIDI-laden "Main Title".While no thematic statement is made, some motifs are introduced in this
somewhat downbeat intro piece.The
percolating midi samples are familiar to those who have heard or own Elfman
albums like Mission: Impossible and A Simple Plan.A resonating bass line and soft choir flesh
things out.

Perhaps the biggest difference between Instinct and
Elfman's last scores: A Simple Plan and A Civil Action, is the
inclusion of large brass sections.A
Simple Plan was an uncompromising mix of percussion, strings, detuned piano
and flutes.I know the score well and
there is little to zero brass - the same goes for A Civil Action which
foregoes brassy cues for midi percussion, Hammond Organ and gospel choir.Whereas A Simple Plan was largely a
critically hailed score, A Civil Action never really got out of the gate
for critics.Instinct sounds
extremely fresh to my ears because of the brass work and therein lies it's
hook.

Elfman seems to have taken the approach that this is a film
that takes place not in Africa but in America - that the flashbacks are still
rooted on American soil.So both
sections of the film are scored in the same way.Cues with African percussion do in fact underscore the
reflections of Ethan Powell (Hopkins), but never degenerate into jungle
clichés.Instead, Elfman uses the choir
to accentuate the delicacy of the relationship between Powell and the
apes.It creates a heavenly feeling
where we associate the gentle sighs from the chorus with the gentle beasts that
Powell later becomes one of.Elfman's
use of choir is also a major attribute.Not since Mars Attacks! has he used a choir to this extent.While it is more in the Good Will Hunting
mode of softer "oohs" and "aahs", it's role in the score is
much more dominant than GWH. The mammoth "Into The Wild" encompasses
most of the softer choral work and is overall the most relaxing and enveloping
track on the album."Into The
Wild" wraps things up beautifully with a choral verse - the feeling is of
great warmth - something not heard in an Elfman album in some time!

Speaking of such subjects, a major criticism leveled against
Elfman these days is his lack of thematic oomph to tie his scores together. You
can argue all day that a score needs a theme to make it memorable, but what
really matters is how it serves the film.In fact, Instinct does have a theme; it just requires a deeper
look/listen to find it. "Everybody Goes" is a wonderfully rich and
emotional track.Starting at 1:30 into
the cue, there is a warm and bold thematic statement.It is music for a pivotal scene and works like gangbusters in the
film. On the album it induces a smile from this reviewer.

The major action cues on the album are clustered near the
end of the album.After almost four
minutes and thirty seconds all hell breaks loose in "The Killing".It's not hard to guess why!The first four minutes don't reveal what's
to come - which is three minutes of pure dissonant, Elfman action.What appears to be unconstructed noise is
actually a detailed musical representation of Powell's descent into
uncontrollable, bloody, murder.The
track rounds out with a heartfelt finale reminiscent of Elfman's Dolores
Claiborne.

A second action cue comes in "The Riot" and is
used to reflect the same melee from the jungle that resulted in Powell's
surrogate simians being poached.More
of the same from the prior track, it's echoes the failure of Theo (Gooding) to
rescue Powell's mind.

Elfman isn't content to let the listener turn off the stereo
with a frown on their face however. "Escape" is to Instinct what "Finale" was to Men
In Black and Batman.Sprightly tinkling piano and midi percussion make beautiful dialogue
underscore that gives way into a soaring, choral burst and crescendo.

The "End Credits" restate some main cues from the
score rather nicely and wrap things up emotionally for the listener.Some of the midi percussion that kicks the
track off induces memories of Wisdom.My single complaint lodged against the score is that the percussion
isn't performed live and does have a synth-y feel to it.The album features the usual sonic
excellence of Shawn Murphy but falls short on packaging with no notes on the
score from Elfman or anyone else, which is typical of most of Varese's
releases.Otherwise it's not hard to
say that Elfman's music for Instinct picks up many of the nuances and
emotions in Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr.'s performances that not even
Jon Turtletaub did in his film.